The bus had stopped for theonde kid chasing his dog. Good news that, for the kid and the driver of the bus. I mean who wants to run over a young boy's dog. Can you imagine the weight?Sure you could tell yourself 'it was an accident. Not my fault at all. Kid came out of nowhere' so on to the end of days. If only you had not felt the bump as the wheels on the buss went round and round on the little blond head. Sure it is impossible to have felt the skull cave. All imagination the therapist would have said but you stopped in time. Time and timing eh? So many agree as to its importance. Waits for no man and so on. The cliche music of yadda yadda, with one and all cringing at the predictable words and sentiments. We cringe and truth drips from every yadda. The driver stops the bus and gets out to make sure of his luck. Shaking he explodes on the little boy who is now crying at the close call, clutching his puppy to his bony t-shirted chest, skinny arms brown from the summer clamped with desperate love around the bag of hair he holds. Time ticks on and ten blocks down the route the drivers sister is finishing her shopping with her two kids. Both the boy and girl are close to the Uncle who drives, and would smile if they knew he escaped killing a boy and a dog or a boy or a dog or maybe just a wheelchair topped with blond hair. Their Uncle is obviously a hero. The sister shops for the last item, splurging on a bag of navel oranges, unable to resist the lovely colour and shapes in the net bag. Leaving the store she takes out one of the fruit and peels it, giving thirds out to all family members. Chewing the pulp she looks up and down the street, knowing her brother is due now, and she turns to throw the peel away in the garbage container on the street. She was raised right and does not litter. Not even organic which her husband claims will just rot and return to the 'biosphere' as he calls it. She giggles at his pomposity, smelling the wonder of citrus on her fingers. The wheels on the bus are going round and round again and the driver is making up for lost time. He prides himself on being punctual. Time is important he thinks. "IF it was not', he reasons 'why would they make schedules huh? I mean, what the fuck over? He is still tingling with adrenaline from the near miss and is thanking his God for saving him and the boy, because the driver knows himself and knows it might have ruined his life. Just the guilt alone makes him sick. The next stop is three blocks away from the family eating oranges. He should have been past the market but things happen, and don't they happen for a reason? Pulling out to make time the driver fails to let the passenger from the last stop get seated. No time to spare. This results in the older passenger doing a face plant on the walkway of the bus, screaming with fear and pain all the time. There is that time thing again. Nerves still shouting the driver spins around to see what is upsetting his world, knowing he is never going to make his scheduled time of arrival at all the next planned stops. The ambulance comes flashing and screaming noise around the corner of the big building that had hidden it till now. Doing a double take the driver swings back to the front in time to see the flashing red and the banshee skirl of trouble. Head on he thinks and swerves to the right and as he swerves the ambulance also tries to get out of the way. For a quick second the two drivers look into each other and make a final effort with the ambulance jumping onto the sidewalk in front of a market and tight into a group of one woman and two children enjoying their orange. Later the bus driver will torture himself with timing. If he had of been on schedule maybe his sister would be alive. May her children would still be walking around this beautiful world. Time and timing he thinks as he pulls the trigger on the pistol in his mouth. The blond boy grew up to be not much at all and the dog died shortly after the near death brush with the bus, only this time it was a cement truck. Timing is odd and the idea of being on time is just another illusion, but illusions can kill. Think about this next time you stop someone from doing what they want to do. Remember, there is always a bus.